The discovery of chronic wasting disease in Southern New Mexico deer and elk has prompted that state’s Department of Game and Fish to expand areas where hunters must observe special rules pertaining to the handling and transportation of animal carcasses. The Department has designated the entire Game Management Units 34, 28 and 19 as CWD Control Areas. Previously, only portions of some units were covered by special restrictions. Department rules allow hunters who take a deer or elk within a control area to transport only certain portions of the carcass outside the boundaries of the Game Management Unit from which it was taken. Those portions include: • Meat that is cut and wrapped, either commercially or privately. • Quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached. • Meat that has been boned out. • Hides with no heads attached. • Clean skull plates with antlers attached. Clean is defined as having been immersed in a bath of at least one part chlorine bleach and two parts water, with no meat or tissue attached. • Antlers, with or without velvet, attached to skull plate with no meat or tissue attached. • Upper canine teeth, also known as “buglers,” whistlers,” or “ivories.” • Finished taxidermied heads. For more information about chronic wasting disease, the drawing, or a field-testing station location, please call the Department at (505) 476-8080.—courtesy New Mexico Dept. of Game & Fish
